Hot Topics:

Cross country: CU Buffs men's team 3rd at nationals

Hurysz, Van Halen, Theroux and Kipp earn All-American status

By Brian Howell, Buffzone.com

Posted:
11/17/2012 02:30:54 PM MST

Updated:
11/18/2012 12:00:35 AM MST

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- With individual medals and a team trophy in hand, Colorado men's cross country runners took turns posing for quick photos Saturday before heading to the airport and barely making their flight home.

The post-race photo sessions weren't all the Buffs rushed through at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. They also made quick work of the 10K course.

Colorado didn't win the national title it was after, but did place an impressive third at the NCAA championships.

"That's about what we expected," junior Jake Hurysz said. "Obviously we wanted to win, but Oklahoma State was just too good and Wisconsin was pretty experienced. I think we're pretty pleased with third place."

Oklahoma State won the men's title with 72 points, followed by Wisconsin (135) and Colorado (158). Individually, Texas Tech's Kennedy Kithuka was the champion. Hurysz was 32nd to lead CU, followed closely by Aric Van Halen in 36th and Blake Theroux in 39th. The top 40 runners earned All-American designation. Freshman Pierce Murphy just missed out, placing 45th.

Oregon won the women's title with 114 points. Providence (183) and Stanford (198) rounded out the top three, while Colorado (519) was 24th. Iowa State's Betsy Saina was the individual champ, while CU's Shalaya Kipp earned All-American designation for the third year in a row, placing 18th.

Advertisement

To get third, the young and inexperienced CU men went after the fast course and didn't let up.

"They did indeed attack the race," CU head coach Mark Wetmore said. "I was (watching) about 250 meters into the race and I think Blake was leading the whole thing. They were very aggressive and when you do it that way, it hurts for a long time, but on a twisty, bumpy sometimes narrow course like this, we knew we had to get out. They just took the pain and it paid off."

Colorado's Shalaya Kipp (No. 139) runs to the finish line Saturday at during the NCAA championships at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. Kipp was 18th. (Brian Howell)

This was Colorado's 11th top-three finish, including its sixth in the past 13 years. This year's squad of seven, however, had combined for just five races at the NCAA championships. Hurysz, who was 62nd in 2011 while running for North Carolina, was the only Buff to post a top-125 performance at nationals before Saturday.

Despite that inexperience, the Buffs ran the course like veterans. It was quite a change from a disappointing third-place finish at regionals on Nov. 9.

"We knew this was the important meet, so coming off of that (at regionals) week, we just re-geared," Theroux said. "We knew how good we were, we knew we were fit. "

Hurysz was not thrilled with his individual race, but said his teammates played a key role in him finishing strong to secure his first All-American designation.

"I was looking to be a little bit higher than where I finished, but things didn't come together for me today," he said. "I saw Blake and Aric most of the race and they just kept picking me up and I followed them. We worked really well together up front."

Van Halen and Theroux also earned All-American honors for the first time.

"If you go inside Balch Fieldhouse and you see the wall full of All-Americans, if my name can be on that wall, it's really awesome," Theroux said. "To do it in my third year, it's great."

The Colorado women's team also tried to attack the course, but did not execute their plan well. The Buffs came in ranked 23rd nationally and felt they could get into the top 15 with a good day. Kipp was the only Buff to finish in the top 135.

"Unlike the men, the women were tentative, got behind, which was discouraging, and then had a really hard time battling their way back into it," Wetmore said.

The women's team is scheduled to return everybody in 2013, so the general feeling was that Saturday's result, while disappointing, could serve as a springboard to the future.

"It was a lot of the girls' first-time running in a race of this size and caliber," said Kipp, who earned her third All-American designation. "I think they've all learned a lot.

"The experience the girls learned is going to be helpful. They'll be disappointed today, but hopefully they'll remember that a year from now."

Freshman Carrie Verdon, who has had a great first season, was certainly pleased to get this race under her belt.

"It was definitely good experience," she said. "I didn't have the best race but just being here as a freshman is really special."

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story